


mouth all full of stars

by plastics



Category: Red Dead Redemption (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Canonical Character Death, Enemies to Allies To Lovers, F/F, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-02 06:22:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21157037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plastics/pseuds/plastics
Summary: A wolf and a crow walk through the valley of the shadow of death, fearing no evil.





	mouth all full of stars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PositivelyVexed](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PositivelyVexed/gifts).

> Title from "Blood Red Sentimental Blues."

The bounty went up in Armadillo, right around when Sadie was starting to get real ready to move on. Winter never truly grasped New Austin, not like it did in Ambarino, but Sadie still felt the sway of the seasons as biting nights gave way to long, clear summer days that allowed the Del Lobo gang to get even nastier than it already had been. Worse than that was the local law’s unwillingness to put up the sort of coin that would warrant Sadie sticking her toe out of line, nevermind drawing her revolvers.

Some wealthy widow out in West Elizabeth was willing to cough up five hundred dollars for the apprehension of the Black Belle. Sadie would have gone without it.

— — — — — 

It wasn’t that Sadie never traveled through this part of the country. Bounty hunting didn’t let a person be picky about where they spent their time, and, besides, most of everyone who knew of her former affiliation was dead. But no matter how much Sadie changed, hardened herself, tied up tight the idea of who she used to be, walking those roads always felt like brushing up against something terrific.

Despite local authority’s attempts to soften its wilderness in recent years, tearing up trees and widening roads to ease the flow of tourists, the woods surrounding Strawberry sung familiar to Sadie—the chattering of squirrels, cooing cardinals, the careful scurry of a fox. The distant sounds of larger things too cautious to waste their time with man.

The town itself was fine. A bit cute for Sadie’s tastes. Without a saloon within city limits, she was forced to ask around the lodge if anyone had seen an older lady, dress as back as her hair. Some smart-dressed popinjay from some far-off city had the nerve to whistle low at the question.

“I’ve seen bigger men than you never get seen again after asking that question these last few weeks,” he said, the smirk as obvious in his voice as it was on his face.

“Some things just require a feminine touch,” Sadie sneered in response. She let his eyes skim significantly over her duster, the plain cut of her clothes, before she shot a leg out to knock him off balance. The boy let out a funny little squeal as Sadie got him off-balanced and pinned against the countertop, the front desk clerk tittering nervously over her shoulder.

“Ma’am, please, there’s no need for violence—”

Sadie pressed the boy tighter. Normally, she didn’t have much patience for insults nor for men who stood in the way of her bounty, but he seemed even younger up close, with parents that might get a little upset if he returned home with his little upturned nose set to the side. So instead, she let plenty of growl into her voice as she said, “This little runt is trying to stand in the way of the State’s greater interests. Maybe I should just take him down to the jail until he’s feeling a bit more cooperative, see how his Ma and Pa would feel hearing about that.”

“No! No, I— I just came from the train station, and there a couple rough looking fellows—not that there’s anything _ wrong _with that, you know, just little assumptions we all make, no harm in it—and there were talking about having to push further east to catch—well, they used some rather unflattering terminology, but I imagine your goals remain the same, nonetheless,” he stuttered, eyes darting between her, the clerk, and the small group of similarly dressed clowns Sadie can only assume he was trying to impress.

Sadie let him slump to the floor. The clerk huffed, displeased, and said, “You know, the mayor really doesn’t care for your kind stirring up trouble in town. Our lawmen can take care of their own.”

She tipped the wide brim of her hat in response. “Well, then it’s probably for the best that I’m on my way, ain’t it?”

— — — — — —

Sadie caught her scent across Cumberland Falls. Black Belle traveled smart, winding paths that never left her too exposed but still left her trail to be covered up by more foot traffic at the crossroads. It was impressive. Under normal circumstances, Sadie might have even struggled.

As it was, a fire lit in Sadie’s belly the moment the moment Sadie stood in her abandoned camp, its heat honing Sadie to an edge. Black Belle was not simply a sharpshot with a poor taste in husbands, no, she was _ more _than that. Something deeper, darker. Evil.

The contract said to keep her alive. Sadie knew then that she wouldn’t be pocketing that bounty.

— — — — — 

Sadie followed the trail to a small settlement, a farm without any crops on land so dry the bed of the nearest creek was already pale from the sun and near white in the moonlight. It put her on edge. The hunt sang in her blood. Black Belle was so close Sadie could _ taste _her—there. In the shadows. Sadie’s mind raced, senses expanding, the tips of her fingers and the roots of her teeth tingling—

A sharp gust of air sent glittering pieces of something in the air Sadie just made out before it settled across her face. The brim of her nose was already red and tight from long hours in the sun, but it was nothing compared to the feeling then, the searing burn of the skin beneath a blister. Panic took over as her chest tightened. Her breath came hard and whistling. She screamed, if only to feel that she could, her hands turning hot as she pawed at her face.

“Oh, stop your hollering, girl, it ain’t enough to kill you. I made sure of that much.”

Sadie snapped back, just as loud, “I ain’t been a girl in a long time.”

“Well, you certainly aren’t much of a lady, neither,” Black Belle said. Her voice hardly seemed bothered. If anything, she sounded _ amused. _“That’s alright, neither am I.” 

“We are nothing alike,” Sadie growled. Her whole body still felt hot and on-edge, panic rolling her stomach and prickling her flesh, but it was true, she wasn’t the type to stay on the ground rolling in dirt. She shakily got up back onto her feet and tried to square up against Black Belle, who looked completely unruffled, her skirt rustling against dry grass. 

Sadie’s mind rattled just looking at her. The prairie seemed more wide open and real than it ever had as Black Belle spoke, “We are very different creatures, indeed, but Ms. Adler, I believe you’ve lost track of time.”

Behind them, a door creaked open. Sadie could smell the musk of man, the rust of a poorly maintained repeater. Everything so sharp in the night. Of course. _ Of course, _ how could Sadie have not noticed?

She let out another howl and lunged for Black Belle, enraged at having been played with, _ lured, _but the older woman sidestepped her easily, disappearing once again into the shadows. It was the wrong move, anyway. Sadie could feel her sense leaving her as her body flowed with the animal rage teeming within her, narrowing her vision.

When the man called out, thin with fear, the wolf turned and pounced.

— — — — — 

Sadie awoke surrounded by trees, belly full. She stumbled as she stood upright. In the distance, she heard the rush of running water. She went to it. Once the water ran clear behind her and she’d washed the taste of iron out her mouth, she went about retracing her path.

Hera, resourceful woman that she was, found her way back to safety without a fuss. Not that anyone would half a brain would dare mess with her—the stable hands fed and brushed her, and by the end, they were still more than ready to see her go.

When they rode by the house from last night, there was a woman, stone-faced with strong arms, digging a long grave at the foot on the nearest hill.

Sadie turned and rode hard.

— — — — — 

Sadie never much liked a heavy heat. Winters were hard, but nothing weighed down her spirit like the dead of summer in Lemoyne. It felt like the whole state slowed down, melting into whatever could hold their weight while they thought of days past, so much cleaner than the ones ahead. None of it sat right with her. 

Neither the setting sun nor the river breeze made too great a difference. Sweat made the back of Sadie’s shirt cling to her back. Her posture was lagging, and her hips ached after too many hours in the saddle. An even greater heat hummed just beneath her skin. She needed to find a place to lay low, but more and more it felt like the netting of this country was tightening up, like there wasn’t anywhere to be alone anymore.

Worse was that it was going on the third month that she felt that pull into place. She’d been pulling in proper bounties in between, sure, but once she caught that scent again, Sadie knew there was nothing to do but follow.

She wanted Black Belle dead. She wanted _ answers. _

The marsh was bright under the full-moon light. In some ways, it almost seemed peaceful. The Lannahechee was calm, reflecting back plainly against the ripple of fish and alligators, the subtle waving of nesting bitterns among the reeds. But Sadie knew better. The natural rot did little to disguise the scent of man.

She found them not much further own the coast. Two men arguing, one already in the boat, another knee-deep in water. A third, except now the rot came from meat instead of water.

“Now is not the time to get _ weak, _Finnian. What’s done is done, and unless you want to spend your last months in Siska waiting for the rope, you best row out there and take care of this.”

A wet sniffle from the man in the boat. “But he was my best friend.”

“And then you killed him for his share of the ‘shine profits! Lord, I wish you was half as ruthless with our enemies.”

The things people did out of greed. Sadie wished she felt any alarm, but after all the things she’s seen since that winter, perhaps the most surprising thing was that there was any reason at all.

Sadie was tired. Her bones ached. The cry in her heart echoed loud. 

She hopped down, made sure her things were tied up tight, then gave Hera a slap on the flank. The two fools didn’t even notice her approach.

— — — — — 

This time, Sadie didn’t wake up alone. The world went from a deep black to suddenly, vividly lush, and she lunged before her senses could truly realign. She found her red-stained hands—cool, clay-rich dirt—tightening against pale flesh and fine black silk. 

It was as if she were trying to claw through a mountain. Sadie pulled back with an enraged howl. “What _ are _you?”

Black Belle laughed once. “Something far older than you, girl, and yet I doubt you’ve heard my name.”

But Sadie’s mind was already racing. That bounty that first sent her out here had been a private contract after the death of her husband. The law never had much luck against Black Belle; her reputation far exceeded anything that could be reasonably attributed to her. But they did not live in a reasonable world. Sadie knew that as well as anyone.

“You’re a damned Angel of Death,” Sadie said.

Black Belle scoffed. “Christian morality has little to do with me.”

“I made that woman a widow because of you!”

“She sure ain’t the first,” Black Belle said, firm and dismissive. 

She launched herself at at Black Belle. It was futile, even before that first muscle tensed, but it felt good to do it. Good to be thrown back down and held there.

— — — — — 

Another month, and Black Belle joined Sadie at her campfire. She was pushing back up through the Roanoke, following some bounty over some business deals that went in a bad way. It was still another day’s ride to Annesburg, and she had the Kamassa between her and Van Horne.

Sadie didn’t look up from the core of the flames as that familiar rustle came close and settled. Birdsongs dimmed as Black Belle spoke. “Some men have to die, Sadie Adler. Don’t act like a stranger to the idea.”

“Mine didn’t,” Sadie replied, voice as flat and cold as her whole body felt whenever she thought of it. On that first bright night all those winters ago, Sadie had been so confused. Terrified. It seemed so unfair that those damned O’Driscolls could take so much. _ They turned me into a monster, _ she’d once told Arthur all those years ago, and as much as she hated it, every month forced the same raw, burt-sugar passion out of her. Not that it was just on full moons. Not that it was just the wolf. But the thoughtlessness of the hunt—they kill rabid dogs for less.

“That man in the Heartlands? A woman beater, without a lick of sense. His children cowered when he entered the room. The world is no worse off without him in it.” Her voice was not gentle, pitying, righteous. As if putting a man in the ground was as natural as a drought.

There was little doubt in Sadie’s mind now—she was all animal. Beastly. Maybe being a hunting dog, pointed in the right direction, was the most she could hope for.

In the distance, Sadie could hear the thunder of a crew riding hard. The moon was high. She didn’t fight it.

— — — — — 

When the time came, it became easier to follow the trail. It was just like any other bounty at the heart of it. Someone somewhere made a call. A clock ran out. Sadie didn’t ask questions. Black Belle didn’t seem like the type to answer them, anyway.

— — — — —

Sadie settled around Valentine. Black Belle never seemed to call her too far from there, and besides, business was good in the area. Staying still long enough to build up a reputation paid well, it turned out.

It was strange how things turned out. Sadie wasn’t the sentimental sort, but maybe being back in those hills set her up for old memories, anyway. Normally, she wouldn’t have thought twice about some nasty fights turned south or gossip of a gunslinger turned farmhand and his family that’s settled in a ranch outside Strawberry, aside from the bounty that may be attached to them. And yet—Jim Milton. Lord, if that wasn’t exactly the sort of thing John would come up with.

She sent a telegram. There was no harm in it; worst case, there would be no response. Best, well, maybe it’d be nice to know someone else escaped the fire and brimstone. 

— — — — — 

John, Abigail, Jack, Charles, Uncle, Pearson. More, if she listened to John.

It was all hard to believe. Hard to process. Sadie was far too used to being alone. Business dealings were one thing, but the longer that her and John rode together again, the more it pressed against what she thought was a tightly wound box. These folks—Arthur—had seen her through that first year when she’d felt so cold that it seemed like she would shatter before she thawed.

It was a good, humble little life John and Abigail had created. But Sadie didn’t forgive, and looking into John’s eyes sometimes, she could see her hunger reflected.

— — — — — 

When Black Belle led her to the Great Plains, Sadie kept running straight into Tall Trees. Found a Skinner Brothers camp so foul it would have been a nightmare to wake up in even before she showed up.

  


They met in the Blackwater saloon the next day. Black Belle didn’t say a word. Didn’t even seem disappointed, really.

“You need to leave that man alone,” Sadie said before she even sat. “John is a good man. Whatever else he’s done, however you make your judgments, he is _ good.” _

Sadie wasn’t a small woman, and it felt good to stand straight and growl and say what she knew to be true, but she still sat, and drank, and drank, and drank.

Autumn had begun to take hold. In richer land, that meant the last of waving seas of corn, bright orange bursts of color, more apples for Hera. But the land was too barren, its plants too sturdy, and it left the cold consume the region with a merciless depth. Nothing too bad yet, but it still snuck in past her window later, after Black Belle proved she had a hot trigger finger in more ways than one. Sadie sat with her bare back against the hard wooden backboard and thought of how much she truly hated the cold. It hadn’t always been the case, but now the promise of winter always set Sadie on edge.

Black Belle reached up and took the cigarette from between Sadie’s lips, a familiar gesture. “I heard a rumor that might interest you. A man by the name of Cleet Taylor. Apparently he’s up in Strawberry, trying to drink away some guilt.”

“Why didn’t you just send me to him last night?” Sadie demanded, feeling her body go hot and knife-sharp.

“Well, that’s no way to get information out of a man. Besides, he’s out of my purview.”

Cleet fucking Taylor. Isolated from the rest of that scum Micah’s gang, all out in public. It almost felt like a gift, except she knew just how the hunt he’ll send her on would be. A death wish, if she did it on her own.

_ Revenge was a fool’s game. _ Well, maybe Sadie was a fool.

— — — — — 

Riding up the snow-covered path of that mountain, wind stinging her face, hands red and sore even through her gloves, Sadie thought of South America. 

When Arthur had first brought up that meeting that treasure, Sadie was sure that the man had been lying. When she came across _ The Brave Expeditions and Diplomacy of Máximo Cristóbal Valdespino _while passing through a city further south, she’d become even more confident that the man was more fiction than fact.

Still, the idea stuck. Sadie knew that country would be country and people would be people wherever she went, but she also knew, even before she saw Micah dead and riddled with bullets from John’s gun, her own torso throbbing with pain as she felt blood slick the inside of her duster, that she was done with this land.

— — — — — 

“Can’t say I’ve ever seen you in a skirt before.”

It wasn’t quite a surprise to see Black Belle in her room again—she had a habit of coming and going when pleases by then. Sadie shrugged, locked the door behind her, dropped a spare pistol onto an end table. “Had a wedding to attend.You’re quite familiar with the event, as I understand it.”

“Oh, certainly. Wonderful occasions.”

The silence was easy as Sadie went about getting ready for the night. It wasn’t a long process; she’d never been prone to excess, and recently she’d been picking away at what’s left. Until there was nothing left but what could be carried on horseback.

Or at least, that had been her plan. 

Sadie wasn’t a religious woman, despite her parents best efforts. The idea of man being able to spell out absolutely all the good and bad and meaning in the universe never made much sense to her. Still, some of the lessons stuck, despite _ her _best efforts, and regardless of Black Belle’s balking, Sadie couldn’t help but think what counted as justice and righteousness in the Old Testament. How much of it simply boiled down to obedience. Listening when you’re called to action.

She still didn’t bother with Sunday morning sermons or praying for her soul or anything as ridiculous as that, but sometimes it felt as though riding with Black Belle connected her to something powerful, some tight-knitted truth beneath all the madness of this world.

Besides, she didn’t think any church would know what to do with an angel that let Sadie lick the taste of whisky out of her mouth, the metallic taste of something lower.

“I was thinking of moving south,” Sadie admitted on an impulse, but it still felt _ right. _ “Far south. I don’t know what kind of obligations a woman like you has, but you’ve been fair company these last few months.”

Black Belle smiled, a small thing, and said, “Don’t make offers you don’t mean, Sadie Adler, because I might just take you up on that.”


End file.
